All I Asked Was One Thing
by gawilliams
Summary: Bones speaks to Hannah after the breakup.


_This one may or may not be a part of the _Deep Regrets_ storyline. I'll leave that to everyone to decide on their own. I am considering doing a _Deep Regrets _story where Bones confronts Booth after the beak up with Hannah which has been alluded to in a couple of the Deep Regrets stories, and will write it if there is enough interest. I hope everyone enjoys this one. Gregg._

_Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended._

Bones was in the Founding Fathers quietly waiting for Hannah to arrive. She sipped at the glass of wine she had ordered and calmly ordered her thoughts. She wasn't sure whether to be angry at Hannah, or elated at the turn of events. It was a very difficult quandary, and she hated herself for even considering being happy when the main cause of her being happy had been at the expense of Booth being hurt once more. When Hannah walked in and took a seat across from her, she decided that she was both. She was angry and happy.

"Hi Temperance," Hannah said, almost nervously. She liked the Forensic Anthropologist, and knew that by turning Booth down in his proposal she had likely destroyed her friendship with Temperance.

"Hannah," Bones nodded and took another sip of wine.

Hannah now knew what others had told her of the steady stare and countenance of the woman when she was angry. That level glare, not malevolent, but hardly benign, was fiercely intimidating. If this was the level of concentration that she devoted to her work, then she must indeed be the most formidable person in her field.

"All I asked was one thing, Hannah," Bones broke the momentary silence.

Hannah took a large sip of her own drink. "I know," she replied.

"I asked that you not hurt him," Bones prodded. The pain in Booth's eyes when he'd told her was enough to make her want to die inside herself, as it was the same pain filled look he'd had when she'd rejected his advances over a year before.

"I didn't want to hurt him, Temperance," Hannah told her. That was the truth. She cared for Booth, and admired what he had here, and his friends.

"Then why did you?" Bones asked simply.

Hannah flinched. The question had been asked directly, without malice, yet the venom in the question was there nonetheless. She really didn't know what to say.

"I imagine you know my feelings for Booth," Bones continued, not waiting for confirmation. "I made a very grave mistake a year ago, and hurt him deeply. I can't change that, and when I broke down and confessed to him my true feelings a while ago, and that I knew that I'd made a mistake in rejecting him, he told me something that I can honestly believe is from his heart, because it's the kind of man he is. He said that he was in a relationship, and that you weren't a consolation prize. I didn't expect any different from him, nor would I have been happy if he had said any different. He was giving you the best part of himself, Hannah, and he was doing so at the detriment of his friends who could see him acting differently. We weren't upset, and we knew that he was making an honest effort to have a long lasting relationship and work through his demons from his time in Afghanistan, but he was doing all that for you, Hannah."

Hannah could see how much it pained Temperance to be saying this, and listened carefully, knowing that she deserved this dressing down for her actions. She had been honest with everyone. She was a gypsy of sorts, and at the same time had wanted to try and see if this could work with Seeley. But her wandering urges, a hazard of her profession and who she was, had been too much and it had become readily apparent that she couldn't say yes when Seeley proposed. Temperance was right. All this woman had asked was that she not hurt Seeley. It was the regard, and caring, of a genuine friend who knew that she'd most likely blown her chance, but loved the man too much to allow him to go through that again if she could at all help to let him avoid it.

"So, before I make any assumptions that may be unwarranted, I would simply like to know why," Bones concluded. She continued to level her gaze at Hannah, watching every slight flicker of body language.

Hannah took another sip of her drink before answering. "Before I answer that, I want to say that I never intended on hurting him," she told the rather intimidating scientist.

"Oddly enough, I believe that, Hannah, but Booth once told me that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions," Bones observed. "I don't think I ever _**really**_ understood that until this happened, but I do think highly enough of you to give you that much credit on your intentions."

"Seeley told me about your confession, Temperance," Hannah began to answer. "I wasn't angry. Anyone could see how you feel about him, and when he explained what had happened, and what had happened a year ago, I could see he was genuinely trying to keep your friendship, but make what we had work. But whether he believed I wasn't a consolation prize or not, it doesn't change the fact that I really was. I'm not saying that in a bad way, Temperance. Anyone coming into his life after what happened, would be a consolation prize, whether it worked out or not. I was planning on talking to him about this soon, but he proposed and I knew I had no choice but to turn him down. It wouldn't have been right to let it drag out and then end in the worst possible way."

"And you've never been very comfortable here," Bones added.

"Honestly?" Hannah asked. "No. Not because of any of you. You've all been wonderful to me, especially you. I honestly don't think I could have been as nice to me if I'd been you. I really care about Seeley, Temperance, but I think we both know who he needs to be with."

Bones looked down into the swirling wine in her glass. "I don't really know if that's possible now," she responded finally, not even trying to deny that she didn't know who she was talking about. "Though it wasn't my intention, I've hurt him a great deal over the years, especially last year when I rejected him. At the moment, I just want my best friend back. Yes, both of us have made mistakes over the years, so I'm not completely responsible for what happened, but my rejection of him brought about so much of what is happening now that it may not be possible to salvage anything more than our friendship."

Bones stood up and placed some money on the table, paying for the drinks.

"I know that this is rude, but please stay away from Booth," Bones said as she shouldered her side bag. "I need to try and see if I can help him get over this. You being around him would only make things worse. I also don't think it would be fair if we continued our association. You've been a good friend to me, and one of the very few friends I have outside of my professional life, but if I have to choose who my friend is in a situation like this, it has to be Booth. I won't accept him thinking he's some sort of pawn between the two of us. He isn't, and I won't allow anyone to cause him to think so."

"I understand," Hannah said sadly. Temperance Brennan was one of the few female friends she had, and now it was gone. Not because they hated each other, but because it would make things awkward and difficult for the one person who Temperance held in the highest possible regard. "If you do get a chance to have it all, Temperance, don't hide behind your fears this time. He deserves better than that, and so do you."

Bones smiled for the first time that evening. "I won't," she replied. "Good bye, Hannah. I may be mad at you, and I may also be slightly optimistic about my own future now, but all I've ever wanted was for Booth to be happy, even if it was with you."

Hannah watched as the other woman left the bar and wondered if Seeley Booth understood just how lucky he really was having that woman as a friend. She sighed. She'd lost out on two accounts that day. First with Seeley, and now with Temperance's friendship. But Temperance was right. Seeley wasn't a pawn, and didn't deserve to be made to feel that way, real or imagined.

Bones walked down the street to her car deep in thought. She didn't know how to help Booth at this moment, but she hoped that what she'd learned over the past year would help her achieve her goal of making things right with Booth. As she considered it, she realized that he had been an unwitting pawn in all this, even if no one had noticed, or intended that to be the case. She would give it some time, work with him, allow him to be as close as he wanted to her, professionally and personally, and see what happens. If things didn't change anytime soon, then she would go to him. In the meantime, they both needed to heal a bit from the emotional maelstrom of the past few months. And when the time came, if it ever did, when he was willing to give her another chance, she wouldn't squander such an opportunity. Not many people ever get second chances in life, and she was determined not to make the same mistakes if she got that elusive second chance.

_A/N: Just a short one, but I wanted to put something out there that looked at Hannah in a somewhat positive way in keeping with the _Deep Regrets_ line of stories on the chance that I decided to include this one in that storyline. I hope you all enjoyed this one. Gregg._


End file.
